


After the War

by Shazi



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-06
Updated: 2017-09-14
Packaged: 2018-12-24 14:52:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12015069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shazi/pseuds/Shazi
Summary: After the war Sora and Kairi attempt to live a normal life. This doesn't quite go to plan.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't done any fanfic writing in forever but I have improved my general writing since then. More or less I have idea I want to put down and it never hurts to put them out there as well. Maybe someone else would like my trash :)

Another charity Gala, a gathering of all the “important” people. The ones who mattered, which of course meant the ones with money and influence. Kairi tried her best not to roll her eyes whenever one of the older men would compliment her for becoming such an attractive young woman or one of their wives would glance at her up and down as if they were sizing her up for a fight. She sipped champagne carefully, she wanted a buzz but she didn’t want to make a fool of the family. She would never hear the end of it if she embarrassed the mayor or his wife at a function.  
“Kairi darling, where have your parents gone?” Gina, the owner of most of the fishing businesses strolled up to her, he silver hair held up in an elaborate waterfall style made her appear a lot older than she truly was, this had helped her a lot when she was younger and climbing her way up to the top. Gina was also the mother of one of Kairi’s oldest friends: Riku.  
“I’m afraid I haven’t seen them Mrs Hirano.”she replied with what probably looked like a very forces smile, which it was  
“Kairi, you aren’t a child anymore, you can call me Gina” She laughed prettily and sipped at her glass. Kairi wasn’t an expert on hard drinks but it looked like she was drinking scotch or whiskey on the rocks.  
“Of course. I’m sure they’re off preparing for their speech which they should be making any minute now.” she offered. She hadn’t kept track of her parents all night, as Gina said, she wasn’t a child anymore, she didn’t need them making sure she was fine at every second.  
“Ah of course, their classic charity speeches. I’m sure you’re as bored of them as I am. Riku is so bored of them he told me he wasn’t coming home for the Gala at all.” Gina rambled a little. “Some advice darling, these men are going to see you as a piece of meat. Show them you are a lioness and they are the meat.” she placed a hand on Kairi’s shoulder. “We’re lionesses and we will not be looked down on.” She drained the last of her drink, placed it one a table and walked over to a group of people and greeted them excitedly. Kairi guessed she was getting rather drunk, she had a feeling that wasn’t Gina’s first drink of the night and it was certainly not going to be her last.  
Draining her own drink and calling for another Kairi tried to mingle with guests, earning mostly compliments about how beautiful she had become, or feigned surprise at her attendance. Times like these she missed Riku, the two of them spent most of these functions making up stories about the personal lives of the businessman, who was involved with whose wife in what kind of scandalous affair. It had seemed like a silly game when they were younger but more and more she found herself seriously considering who was involved in what scandalous affair, such information could be very useful is the business and political world.  
Loud chimes sang behind her and Kairi turned to see her father, standing rather sideways on the stage with her mother draped on his hip, grinning stupidly. She sighed to herself and braced for the awful speech that was inevitable.  
“I hope everyone is enjoying themselves!” her father announced, “it’s been a fantastic evening and we have raise quite some money.” He gave an almighty snort. “Yes, quite a bit of money” his voice lowered and his laugh became far less jolly.  
Kairi frowned to herself. Something didn’t seem right, instinctually she assumed a neutral fighting position. She had come home from fighting a war only a year ago, her instincts were still that of combat and she was ready to leap into action at a moment's notice.  
Her father said a few more words before he and his wife started laughing hysterically at what was clearly an inside joke. Suddenly her parents burst into blobs of black before they formed into grotesque creatures with glowing yellow eyes. Kairi’s eyes widened for half a second before she pounced towards them.  
The Heartless.  
The crowd screamed as the heartless grew unequal amounts of spiderlike limbs and crawled towards them. The laughter that Kairi knew to be her parents turned sickening and twisted and she watched the heartless devour and injure some of the guests that couldn’t get away fast enough. Weaving her way through the sea of people running towards the door she drew her keyblade and leapt to one of the tables, ready to fight.  
Unfortunately the three or four champagnes she had that night caught up with her and he heeled feet slid on the tablecloth and she fell. Her left foot stabbed with pain and she couldn’t stand. She stared up and the heartless in feebly and used her keyblade to create a barrier preventing them from getting closer to the fleeing guests.  
Her breath caught as she hoisted herself back up, she couldn’t put any weight on her ankle, it was possibly broken but she had no time to think about that yet, she had to do something about the heartless. With few other options, she leaned on her keyblade drew her hand in front of her and launched a fireball from her palm. She launched several more, each one knocking the heartless back, but not doing any visible damage.  
Immune to fire she thought to herself and changed to icicles. Gesturing appropriately she threw spears of ice at them, these did more damage but Kairi had exhausted he magic and couldn’t throw any more.  
From her left the stained glass window shattered, and Sora leapt through. His keyblade drawn and sliced along both of the heartless before landing and rolling to a fighting position. Wasting no time, he barreled through them, taken them out quickly before dashing to Kairi’s side.  
“Is everyone alright?” He asked her and looked over to the people still evacuating the hall.  
“My parents are gone.” Kairi said simply before she dematerialised her keyblade, he offered his arm as support, without a word and helped her outside.

Several police cars had pulled up, and guests were being escorted away by their drivers or family. Kairi also spotted an ambulance, which was currently taking care of those wounded by the heartless. An officer walked up to them with a notepad in hand.  
“You’re injured ma’am?” He asked quickly  
“I think I sprained my ankle” Kairi replied.  
“Your name Ma’am?” he scribbled some noted down  
“Kairi Sato,”  
“Mayor’s daughter? Did you see what happened?” he scribbled down more in his notepad  
“My dad was making a speech, he looked kinda drunk and mom was hanging off him and those things attacked.” She twisted the truth a little. She had to uphold the world order as best she could.  
“And you young man?”  
“Sora Tanaka. I was in the bathroom, I came out and saw her trying to limp away Sir,” Sora was far better at lying than she was. The officer wrote down more in his notebook. “Miss Sato, we’re going to have to close off the manor for our investigations, is that alright?”  
“Yes, of course officer.” she reached into the small pocket she had sewn on the inside of her dress and took out a card. “Here are my contact details, my mobile number is on there for when everything is clear.” she handed it to him and he added that to his notes,  
“Have you somewhere to stay?”  
“Yes sir,” she said without even thinking, the officer nodded and gestured for her to go to the ambulance to take care of her ankle.  
“I hate lying” Sora hissed to her, “but I can’t exactly say I sensed the darkness and came running, i’d sound nuts.” he added in a low voice.  
“You do it better than I do.” Kairi responded, I told mostly the truth  
“Given what happened, I think it’s better to have some part of the truth in there. Too many witness could contradict what you say.” Sora was barely audible, but with how close he was to support her weight, she could hear him just fine.  
They reached the ambulance and the paramedic and the woman sighed heavily.  
“What happened to her?”  
“I tripped while trying to run, heels and champagne are a terrible mix in an emergency” Kairi tried her best to smile. The paramedic gave her a soft smile and a shake of her head. She patted the stretcher for kairi to sit on so she could treat her.  
Sora easily hoisted her up so she didn’t have to bare any weight on her ankle. The Paramedic arched an eyebrow at how easily he lifted her and how little communication there was between them about it but said nothing. She gently took Kairi’s ankle and Kairi winced as she rolled it around.  
“Just a sprain, if it gets any worse come into the hospital for some xrays just in case it’s broken.I’ll wrap it in some compression bandages to help with the swelling. Elevate it, stay off it as much as you can and ice it if it starts to swell.” She said and gestured for Sora to lower off the stretcher again.  
“Thank you” Kairi mumbled, as Sora brought her back to the ground.  
“You’re free to go,” The Paramedic said before calling over someone else who needed attention.  
Still supported by Sora, they left the premises and stood outside the gate of the manor. Kairi took out her phone and typed a quick text message to Selphie to assure her she was okay.  
“I noticed you didn’t ask Selphie to stay the night, where were you planning on going?” Sora asked slowly. Kairi blinked and looked up at him in surprise.  
“I have no idea, I just sort of said whatever to get away.” She frowned at herself. Sora chuckled and adjusted how he was supporting her carefully.  
“You can come stay with me for the night, it’s probably best given the circumstances.” he said and Kairi nodded in agreement. He was right, with her parents becoming heartless, it was only reasonable. Sora would have to check the world’s keyhole and do a sweep of the the islands to clear out anything that was missed, better she was somewhere safe. The war had taught her that.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the incident, Sora gives Kairi a place to stay for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made more! #trashcan

“It’s a long way to walk,”Kairi said in a worried tone, Sora arched and eyebrow and his mouth quirked into a smile. He scooped her up like he had to put her on the stretcher and started walking towards his home.  
“You can’t carry me the whole way!” Kairi said in protest.  
“It’s not the first time I have carried you to safety and it won’t be the last” He shut her down and continued walking. She sighed to herself, it wasn’t as if she could really argue, he was probably strong enough to carry her all the way there, it’d been a year since their final fight with Xehanort and Sora hadn’t lost any of that muscle. He was tall and lean, built for speed rather than brute force but he still had the strength behind him when he needed it. Kairi was small so carrying her wasn’t exactly a strain on him either, but she still felt bad.  
“So what happened? I didn’t see the heartless attack your parents.” Sora was frowning slightly.  
“The heartless didn’t attack my parents, they were my parents” Kairi corrected him. His was silent and his frown deepened. “They were giving a speech about the amount of money they had raised for charity when they turned.”  
“Odd.” Sora glanced at her.  
“They’d been skimming money from their charity events for years. The Greed finally caught up with them.” Kair replied simply. She felt Sora take a deep breath, and laid her head against his shoulder. They walked the rest of the way in silence. Kairi quietly mourning and Sora, as far as she could tell, thinking about something deeply.  
“Mom is probably still asleep so we should be quiet.” he gently put her back on her feet against the side of the shack he and his mother shared. They had lived in a large house, further in town once. While Sora’s father was still alive that was. He had died while Sora was away fighting and Sora’s mother Namika had to downsize after her husband’s income ceased.  
Sora took out his keys and opened the door, a small living and kitchen space greeted them. He lead kairi over to his bedroom door and let her in.  
“What are you doing?” She asked in a whisper as he started rummaging through his drawers  
“I don’t expect you to sleep in a ball gown, and I don’t have clothes magic like the good fairies do so you’ll have to make do with some of my clothes.” he whispered back, He tossed her a hoodie, t-shirt and pair of sweatpants. “Uh. Let me know when you’re done, I’ll set the couch up for you.” he shuffled out of the room while she changed. The dress she had on was harder to take off when she couldn’t stand properly. She sat on Sora’s bed so she could unzip it without falling over and pulled it down off her. She gratefully threw the t-shirt and sweatpants on and made sure the drawstring on the sweatpants would keep them up around her hips before she hobbled out.  
Sora had lowered the couch futon to make a bed and given her some blankets and a pillow. He had even set up some cushions for her to elevate her ankle. Kairi smiled to herself, always the gentleman.  
“There that should be okay for the night” he nodded, he glanced over to her and gave a quick smile before heading to his rooms “Wake me if you need anything.” he added as he closed the door behind him.  
Leaving the hoodie on the coffee table Kairi curled herself up under the blankets and rested her ankle on the cushions. The buzz of the champagne was wearing off and she gratefully sank into the futon to sleep.

Sora must have been asleep for only an hour when he was shaken awake. The room was too dark to see but he could recognise Kairi’s breathing, even erratic like it was now. He sat.up carefully and blinked. His eyes slowly adjusted, using one of the many abilities he’d picked up in his travels he saw her faintly, like it was just hitting sunrise. She looked terrified.  
“what happened?” he put a hand on her shoulder gently. She inhaled sharply at his touch.  
“I-I had a nightmare.” she said, looking down ashamed of herself. “it's stupid, I’m sorry I woke you.” she went to walk away but he put a tiny amount of pressure on her shoulder. A tiny gesture which made her stay.  
“It's not stupid, you’ve had a rough night.” he whispered. He got out of his bed and led her to the door. The lamp in the lounge was on and Sora blinked to readjust to the new light level. The futon was a mess, the blanket was twisted around itself and the pillows were scattered all over the place. “A very rough night,” he added to himself.  
He sat on the futon, and gestured for her to sit next to him. He put his arms around her and she settled her head in his shoulder. Memories of sitting by fires and sitting like this flooded sora’s mind. Many of their missions during the war had been just the two of them, Riku had sent them to places together before Sora had passed his Mark of Mastery. Whether that was so Sora could train Kairi or Kairi could keep him in line he never knew but he had enjoyed those times together. Exhaustion and their connection, it felt normal to lay like that.  
After a while Kairi’s breath steadied and slowed, Sora took one of the pillows, put it in his lap and gently lowered Kairi to lay on it before he leaned back and rested his head against the wall. He was in for an uncomfortable night, but it was a sacrifice he was ready to make. For Kairi’s sake.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter, honestly had no plan for where this was going to go other that it being fluff stuff a bit later on. It might not have an "end" or I might pick it up and give it a legit ending. Who knows, it was mostly just a writing exercise to get me out of the rutt while writing something else

Kairi woke up groggily, her eyes were heavy and her head thudded dully. A mild hangover, not bad all things considered. The world slowly returned to her and she remembered the night she had. No wonder she felt awful.  
She didn’t want to move, for fear the world would start spinning but also because she was so happy and comfortable where she was. It’d been so long she had forgotten how safe she felt sleeping around Sora.  
Suddenly the whistle of a kettle in the kitchenette startled her and she sat up suddenly.  
“Oh honey I’m sorry I was busy preparing the pot I forgot the kettle.” Sora’s mother Eli whispered quickly, Kairi flushed red. Eli had woken to find her sleeping in her son’s lap apparently appearing in the middle of the night.  
“I-” she started to explain but Eli cut her off  
“It’s all over the news, you must have had an awful night.” she showed Kairi her tablet, the top story on the local news site was the attack on her house and her parents disappearance. Not reported dead yet, Kairi noted.  
“It hasn’t been great that’s for sure.” Kairi replied.  
“Tea? I find it helps me calm down when I am stressed. When you two and Riku went off on your adventures I found I needed something to relax and get me through the day. Riku’s Aunt, the hippy one I’m sure you know her, made me a herbal tea once and sat with me for hours just drinking and talking.” She explained when Kairi nodded in acceptance of the tea. Kairi knew the Aunt Eli was talking about, she was the one who wasn’t allowed to attend Galas with Riku’s father, Hana she believed her name was. A lovely lady, she just didn’t fit in with the upper class.  
Eli started brewing in the teapot and brought it over to the living room. She placed it on the coffee table and poured three cups. Kairi glanced up to Sora, who had not woken yet.  
“Oh don’t worry about him, this isn’t the first time I have found him sitting on the couch asleep.” Eli gave her a smile and sipped her tea slowly. Kairi followed silently. Eli was right, it was oddly calming to just sit and drink the hot tea.  
“Sora sleeps out here a lot?” Kairi asked frowning into her cup.  
“Yes, I find him out her a lot. He goes to bed after me and sometimes I think he just ends up falling asleep where he is. Other times I think something keeps him awake at night.” She looked over her cup at her son with a soft look. “I don’t know what you kids did while you were away but my son is not the same boy he was when he left. He’s aged so much more than the four years you were gone.”  
Kairi stayed silent. They didn’t really talk about where they had been for four years, everyone had accepted that they were just travelling. They had lost a lot of friends in those 4 years, that was what happened when you were at war.  
“We, weren’t just travelling and sightseeing.” Kairi said heavily.  
“I know dear, Sora’s sleep talking has told me as much.” Eli sighed. “My son doesn’t keep things from me for no reason, so whatever it is he can’t tell me that’s the end of it.” she shrugged, “I just want you three to be happy and safe. It’s what you deserve. It's what everyone deserves.” Kairi felt so much affection for Eli in this moment, ‘happy and safe’ was the entire reason that had gone to war with Xehanort. So everyone could be happy and safe.  
Sora stirred from his sleep and Eli quietly left to the kitchen to leave the two of them alone.  
“Morning.” Kairi said with a soft smile. Sora looked wildly confused for just a moment before he mumbled and rubbed his eyes.  
“Morning.” he sounded relieved. He pinched his brow for a moment and sighed. “Sorry, not a morning person.” He shook his head as if he was shaking off a bad dream, or maybe a bad memory. They had plenty of those.  
“I think you mean not a waking up person.” Kairi said with a chuckle, “as I recall it doesn’t matter what time of the day you way up you’re always cranky.” with one eye closed he looked at her with a frown.  
“I am not cranky when I wake up.”  
“Yes you are, I’ve woken you up enough times to know that.” Kairi gave another laugh and poured him some tea. He groaned to himself as he sat forward and sipped.  
“Mom is already awake isn’t she.” He said, not a question but a statement.  
“Has been for a while.” Kairi sipped her own cup. Sora groaned again but drank the tea.  
“What did she say?” He asked, frowning at his cup.  
“That she saw the news and knows what happened,” Kairi replied.  
“And what did you say?” Sora asked carefully, his voice low.  
“We talked a little while you slept, just chatter to take my mind off it all I guess.” she shrugged. A lie and Sora probably knew it.  
“Sorry I slept through it.” was all he said. “Mom doesn't know anything about where we were or what we did, and she doesn't need to. Remember those are the rules.” he added, she remembered quite well the rules Donald and Goofy had taught them, then Mickey had drilled them in further and Aqua when she returned further still. The World Order must be protected, world inhabitants must not learn that you are from another world, or that other worlds even existed, lest that knowledge reap chaos and tear the worlds apart.  
“I know.” she said finally. “World Order and all that.” she still hated lying.


End file.
